Wow I feel accomplished. I actually managed to finish this on the same night as the other one. Now I should be able to start spewing chapters again (no promises). Anyway, sorry for the long wait, and enjoy.

Chapter 12

The party went on through the night, however not for those in charge gathered on the ship. Shortly after the two lovers left, Whitebeard gathered his commanders and his allies captains, as well as Shanks and sat them in the dinning hall to talk. Out of earshot of the crew members partying on the deck Whitebeard brought to light their dilemma with Ace and the Marine's.

Most of the allies present were speechless at learning of Ace's heritage, the commanders who already knew simply waited for the inevitable screaming to begin. They didn't have to wait long before Squardo was demanding answers, but he was soon overshadowed by Shank's laughter over the situation.

Squardo was pissed, but Whitebeard quickly quieted him with a rebuttal of his history with Ace. It was no secret that they two had had their fights, but otherwise were good friends. Quieted, and even a little ashamed Squardo sat back down with the other allies.

Shanks was not so easily quieted. Overjoyed at learning Ace's parentage he was more than ready to start a whole new party over the information. However upon being reminded by Ben of the peril his old captains son was in he quieted and became oddly serious. And that is where they were now, sitting and discussing possible ways to keep Ace and his unborn child safe.

Shanks was the first to speak.

"Well I can see how sending him with any of your Allies and keeping him on your ship would be obvious, what if you sent him with my crew. No one here could argue that I'm not the World Government's favorite among the Yonko. Plus it would be odd for you to trust another Yonko with one of your crew members."

The others gathered nodded, however before Whitebeard could speak Ben spoke up from his captains' side. "Captain, I'd like you to consider that if the Government does suspect that Ace is with us, favorite Yonko or not you are a world class pirate and they would not object to sending their entire fleet after us. Would you be willing to risk the entire crew for one man?" Shanks frowned a little at the thought, but Benn continued, "Furthermore have you considered that they knew you were on Rogers ship, and that might implicate you as someone to watch?" Shanks frown simply deepened.

Whitebeard however spoke next, "I have to agree with your first mate Red-hair, while I appreciate your offer, and I'm sure Ace would as well, I can't allow you to put your crew at risk like that."

Shanks just nodded, a bit dejected at his brilliant plan being rejected.

The Decalvan Brothers was the next to speak, "We could form an armada, with all of our ships and crews together the Marine's wouldn't dare come near us." Most of the male allies nodded, however it was Whitey Bay who spoke up first against it.

"But they'll know exactly where Ace is. On the Moby Dick, and we'd all be sitting ducks waiting for them to attack."

McGuy spoke up, "We could land on one of the bigger uninhabited islands, and form an armada around the island."

Doma spoke up then, "Do you know how hard it would be to keep this many ships together for months on end? Every island we would visit would be decimated trying to restock all our ships. Even a large uninhabited one wouldn't last, plus the larger the island the harder it would be to defend."

The others nodded seeing his point. However Whitey Bay spoke up again, "What I think we should do is take him to an island, a small out of the way one, maybe under Shank's control and then dress him as a woman and leave him there. We tell the locals we found 'her' at sea, and he can have the baby."

Thatch spoke up then, "I don't see Ace agreeing to that, plus he's not exactly the most effeminate man out there. I mean if it was Izo, I'd say go for it, but Ace speaks and walks like a man. Plus if the marines show up no one will be there to stop them."

Surprisingly it was Squardo who spoke up next, "Then how about we leave Ace with say a dozen men on one of the larger uninhabited islands. He'd be protected, the island could support them, and with that small a group it'd be hard to find them on a large enough island and enough men to leave a solid defense."

All of those present mulled the plan over in their heads, but no one could see any fault with anything that he had said.

"That's a great plan actually. We could also wait till Ace is a little further along, and under the cover of night sneak him and some men to a good island. We'd just have to decide on one. And we could make sure that one ship or another is less than a day away at all times then." Vista commented.

"Ah, and we could make sure that Marco was nearby when his due date gets close." Haruta threw in.

Laughing and patting Squardo on the back Whitebeard couldn't be happier. "Feels good to help your brother right?"

Nodding his head Squardo couldn't help but agree. He and Ace hadn't always gotten along perfectly, but they were friends, and he really couldn't blame his friend for what his father had done before he was even born. The two were nothing alike, and he'd make sure that at least for Whitebeards sake that his friend and child were safe.

A plan set in motion the group went over the details into the quiet hours of the night. However after they had finished most of those who had helped in the planning, were in more than enough of a good mood to rejoin the party and to forget all their worries. And by the next morning most of the Whitebeard pirates, their allies and Shank's crew were passed out on the deck. And by the afternoon almost all were waking up with terrible hangovers, and swearing bitterly to never touch alcohol again.

However by the next night most of the numerous crews were partying again, Shanks right in the middle. They continued their partying for three days, probably the longest baby shower ever if it could even be really considered one, no one wanting to be the first to leave or to end the festivities. By the end most of the crew had touched Ace's belly at least once, Shanks held the record, if you weren't counting Marco, at 20 times. All of which he had tried talking Ace in to letting him either name the baby, or to name the baby after him. Ben was often the one pulling his captain off the younger man, but Marco had definitely helped after he decided he didn't like his lover being manhandled by the other captain.

However it had become apparent to most present that the baby was growing quickly, as they watched Ace sleep near constantly through those three days, and they realized that Ace really was going to be near completely immobilized once he got close to his due date, and the doctors still weren't talking about how they would deliver the baby, but they knew at least two of them would need to be present for the birth.

A pool had been made to take names of those willing to stay on the island with Ace. All the Whitebeard commanders had stuck their names in the pool, and most of the men onboard the many crews gathered had added their names, many listing reasons they should be picked. In the end four of the sixteen commanders had been chosen, along with the two doctors to go, and the other six that would accompany them. None of the captains of the ships could go, for obvious reasons, but in the end those chosen were; Haruta, Namur, Thatch, Izo, Jared, and Brandon from the Whitebeard crew, Yassop and Rockstar from Shanks crew, a man by the name of Verne from Doma's crew, Whitey Bay's crewmember Rice, Squardo's crewmember Lewis, and the Decalavan brothers man Poe. The crew's who didn't have men chosen whined, but as it was a random drawing most got over it, claiming they would help in other ways. The island they chose was to remain a secret for the time, they decided it best to simply have those chosen meet the Whitebeard pirates at a later date on Fishman Island, where the party would disembark from.

Once the men who would be accompanying Ace were chosen and the plan set in motion, most of the crews decided it was time to leave and prepare for their possible future war with the marines. And like that the baby shower and planning was over. All that was left was for them to wait.

Alright I am good for now. I shall start writing the next chapter tomorrow, but for now I am off to bed. I'm sure you well-read readers out there will be able to figure out where I got those very original character names from :P

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed. Please review, it does help me write, even if not always fast, but the more reviews I get the faster I will attempt to get the next chapter out.